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£1.6m boost to provide young people with personalised careers guidance

Schools and colleges will benefit from a further £1.6m investment in personal careers guidance for young people. This is part of an overall £2.5m Personal Guidance Fund which was first announced by The Careers & Enterprise Company in November 2018 and will support thousands of young people through organisations such as Achieving for Children and the Association of Colleges.

The fund supports the development of innovative, cost effective models for careers guidance. The funded projects will be used to develop practical guidance and case studies to support best practice across all schools and colleges.

Personal careers guidance provides young people with dedicated time with a qualified career adviser, allowing them to identify their ambitions and what is important to them, to help individuals make informed decisions about their futures.

The government’s Careers Strategy launched last year highlights the importance of personal guidance in enabling schools and colleges to successfully and affordably deliver the Gatsby Benchmarks – a framework of guidelines that define the best careers provision in schools and colleges.

This year’s recipients include Doncaster Chamber of Commerce, Sussex Learning Network and the University of Bath. Providers will be using the funding to invest in guidance that is delivered in 1:1 settings as well as via digital platforms such as video and SMS, and projects will consult widely with young people, careers leaders and parents. There will also be a strong focus on helping disadvantaged young people and those with a range of additional needs.

The funding will support:

– the provision of personal guidance to young people

– staff delivering personal guidance qualified to Qualifications and Credit Framework (QCF) level 6 or above to have access to relevant continuing professional development

– staff delivering personal guidance at lower levels of qualification to be qualified to QCF level 6 or above through the bid

– staff supporting guidance to have access to relevant training and development, which may include both unaccredited learning and qualifications at the relevant QCF level

– the development of a pipeline of qualified career guidance professionals for the future

Claudia Harris, Chief Executive of The Careers & Enterprise Company, said: “Personal guidance is a vital part of careers education. This funding will make sure even more young people are given the opportunity for high quality personal guidance. This work is a team effort as we work closely with career guidance professionals and careers organisations through the sector to maximise the investment, and show the impact that well-developed, sustainable personal career guidance programmes can have on young people.”

The Sussex Learning Network and Elev8Careers are one of 13 projects to have received funding this year to ensure that young people are accessing high quality and meaningful careers guidance.

The funding will be used to support over 5000 young people to receive Personal Guidance which provides a young person with space to be heard and can also inspire and direct and support them to continue in some form of education or enter into employment. Personal Guidance will be delivered by qualified advisors in 1:1 settings, as well as via online conferencing, video, text and email with additional careers information, advice and guidance available via social media channels for parents, teachers and young people. Our programme seeks to support all young people to develop and realise their aspirations.

Miranda Glavin, Director of Elev8Careers said: “We are thrilled to have the opportunity to support the development of the careers sector, to help parents and teachers raise young people’s aspirations and to make a real difference to young people both through face to face professional careers guidance and through the mediums familiar to them, including social media”

The project will also support careers staff to access their level 6 qualifications and deliver CPD to teaching staff to ensure they are more aware of the challenges young people encounter and are better able to advise and guide them to ensure they fulfil their potential. In addition, a significant number of learners will also be able to access a suite of other interventions known to raise aspiration, improve retention and improve levels of attainment: undergraduate role models; mentoring; peer to peer project working; transition support; workshops with relevant alumni; coaching; subject support – specifically maths; grit and resilience.

Sarah Williams, Director of the Sussex Learning Network, said:“We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to reach out to many of our schools across Sussex and offer all of their learners direct personal guidance. We are certain this will massively help our young people make informed choices about their futures and help them to determine what pathways they wish to follow in their lives.”

Local schools that will form part of this bid include:

Brighton Aldridge Community Academy

Portslade Aldridge Community Academy

Hove Park School & Sixth Form Centre

Blatchington Mill School and Sixth Form College

Cardinal Newman Catholic School

Patcham High

Longhill High

Dorothy Stringer

Varndean School

The Central Hub

UTC@Harbourside

The Academy Selsey

Seahaven Academy

The full article, published through the Careers and Enterprise Company can be accessed here. Below is the list of organisations receiving funding until July 2020: